USA Today: Durable goods orders drop in May; jobless claims up

From BushRecall.org:

The Bush administration has been hell-bent on advertising the apparent strength of the economy, but here's one statistic that you surely won't find in the White House talking points: Orders for durable goods (products - cars for example - that are expected to last at least three years) failed to meet economists' expectations for the month of May.

While analysts had predicted that the number would jump by 1.4 percent, orders unexpectedly dropped by 1.6 percent. Orders for durable goods are considered an important economic indicator because they provide insight about consumer confidence in the state of the economy.

If people are convinced the economy is humming along and that they can expect to benefit, they are more likely to invest in these higher-priced goods. If not, well, we're seeing what happens.

And that's not the only bit of negative economic news for the Bush administration to shove under the rug. It has also been announced that jobless claims for the week of June 19 swelled by 13,000 over the previous week - a number much higher than anticipated.

Read about it here.